Woody Johnson's remarks about Justin Fields crossed the line
Much has been said about the decision of Jets owner Woody Johnson to offer blunt, candid, and harsh criticism of his starting (for now) quarterback, Justin Fields. It was a stunning moment, one that only seemed less jarring due to the nonchalance with which Johnson's words were delivered.
His comments absolutely crossed the line.
What business owner publicly criticizes key employees? What business owner publicly criticizes any employee? A week after the story of the moment arose from Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa venting frustrations at unnamed teammates in the heat of the moment, Johnson delivered a cold-blooded takedown of one specific player.
Even Jerry Jones has never done that.
Is it really a surprise? Bad teams stay bad due to dysfunction within the organization. And it all starts at the top. If the owner doesn't know what he, or she, is doing, how can anyone expect the rest of the organization to operate effectively?
If the NFL were truly a capitalist, and not inherently socialist, operation, there would be real consequences for a chronic habit of steering the ship into every available iceberg. Financial consequences. But with the 32 teams sharing the white whale of TV revenue and 40 percent of the gate for every game, failing to make a profit becomes a Brewster's Millions exercise for any NFL franchise.
One team wins the Super Bowl each year. All teams win the battle of the balance sheet. Johnson's Jets will continue to swim in black ink, even if he has egg on his own face.
The real losers are the fans. There's nothing they can do about ownership. As 49ers CEO Jed York once said, "I own this football team. You don’t dismiss owners. I'm sorry that's the facts and that's the case, but that's the fact."
And the NFL benefits from the fact that its fans are passionate, to a fault. This kid put it best, after the Jets' seventh loss in seven weeks of the regular season: "I hate this team. I was born into this and I'm not gonna ever — I'm always a Jets fan. But, like, I hate this team."
He hates this team, but he'll still follow this team. He'll still go to this team's games. He can't deny himself of this team he loves, this team that has become part of his existence, his identity.
Which makes it much easier for bad owners to continue to print money. And which makes it impossible for Jets fans to do the one thing they objectively should: Boycott everything about the Jets until Johnson sells.
A.J. Brown misses Wednesday's practice with a hamstring injury
Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown posted a season-high 121 yards and caught two touchdowns in last Sunday's win over the Vikings, but his availability for this Sunday's game against the Giants could be at risk.
Brown did not take part in Wednesday's practice. The Eagles listed a hamstring injury as the reason why he wasn't on the field.
Cornerback Adoree’ Jackson (concussion), center Cam Jurgens (knee), edge rusher Azeez Ojulari (hamstring), and linebacker Jeremiah Trotter (ankle) were also out of practice. Cornerback Jakorian Bennett (pectoral), tight end Grant Calcaterra (oblique), guard Landon Dickerson (ankle, back), tight end Dallas Goedert (calf), and defensive tackle Moro Ojomo (shoulder) were listed as limited.
Bennett was designated for return from injured reserve. The Eagles also had defensive end Brandon Graham as new face at practice. Graham, who came out of retirement, was listed as a full participant for non-injury reasons.
As tush push conversations simmer, Jerry Jones expects another vote on ban in spring 2026
NEW YORK — Formally, the NFL league meeting agenda this week did not include conversation surrounding the tush push, multiple sources told Yahoo Sports.
Informally? The debate surrounding one of football’s most controversial plays continues as the 2025 NFL season approaches the halfway mark, with a growing expectation that a vote to ban the tush push will again reach the tables of NFL team owners come spring.
Cowboys team owner Jerry Jones said he expects a vote to be held in the spring.
“Only my opinion, but I think yes, it will be,” Jones told Yahoo Sports. “And it has to do with, while the merits of it have really been the merits of the play and the concerns have been addressed, you still see that it’s one that probably has enough criticism that it will come up again.
The initial vote surrounding a ban of the tush push play, and more likely a broader ban of any pushing or pulling of the ballcarrier, was tabled last March before narrowly failing in May. Passing the vote required two-thirds approval, or 24 votes; the league fell short as 22 of 32 teams voted yes.
That majority approval signaled the opportunity to revisit a vote a year later. And now, after a mixed-message campaign failed in 2025, the league seems to be coalescing around a clearer message: the play’s challenge to fair officiating.
While NFL executive vice president Troy Vincent said there “hasn’t been much discussion internally” about a rule change, he did elucidate the continuing complications the tush push creates.
“What has been said by officials the last two years when we've discussed the push play [is it’s] very difficult to officiate in real time,” Vincent said Tuesday from league meetings. “‘Hey, when the guard jumped, when the guard moved, it's really hard.’ Or the guard was in the neutral zone or someone else was in the neutral zone, it is really hard for that line judge to identify that based on where he is at, looking down the line of scrimmage.
“At the end of the day, there's a team [in the Philadelphia Eagles] that still does it well and we've seen other people have versions of it. But from an officiating standpoint, we want to try to get better at identifying when someone's in a neutral zone or when someone leaves a little early.”
Controversy has bubbled this season, including in September when Fox color analyst Tom Brady pointed to false starts by Eagles guards on a tush-push attempt against the Kansas City Chiefs. The missed call, in a rematch of the most recent Super Bowl, drew heavy scrutiny.
Some league sources believed that the next ban proposal could come primarily, if not exclusively, on the basis of officiating confusion, a framework more likely to galvanize teams than the health and safety or “it’s not a football” play arguments pushed last year. The health and safety arguments struggled to compel teams given that the limited sample size of the play led the league to use projections, rather than past evidence of, the risk of serious injury.
“To me, they should have just said, ‘We can’t officiate it,’” one high-ranking NFC executive told Yahoo Sports. “They set themselves up for failure. They deserve what they got.”
The Green Bay Packers, and since-retired president Mark Murphy, introduced the proposal last year. The proposal would likely need a new sponsor this year in Murphy’s absence, with some believing the NFL’s competition committee could be interested given the officiating concerns.
Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones, who serves on the competition committee, said it was too soon to determine whether the committee would do that. Data later this season will influence any decisions.
“It’s not going to be touched during the season,” Jones said. “This spring, I think we’ll go over it again … and we just got to see if we’ve got the votes.
“Obviously, there were a lot of people who were ready to move on last year.”
The tush push was not formally on the docket for discussion at the NFL's fall meetings. But informally ... (Photo by Kathryn Riley/Getty Images)
Kathryn Riley via Getty Images
In the meantime, the league says it will strive to improve officiating more broadly, continuing to integrate technology including replay assist and a sky judge to supplement the on-field human officials whose ability to see all clear angles is limited.
The NFL could use artificial intelligence as a tool in officiating, commissioner Roger Goodell said Wednesday.
“We’ve added replay assists as [we] use technology, which I think is really a valuable thing,” Goodell said. “We're looking at how AI can be a factor in that. How can we use AI to maybe help in officiating as well many other areas throughout this league? So I'm quite optimistic that we'll continue to have more technology and that will involve more communication either between the crews, between our office and the replay [team].”
Part of the decision surrounding the continued integration of technology into officiating will be teams’ tolerance levels for game stoppage and penalties. Vincent said about 10 “live ball” fouls, or fouls after the snap, have been called per game, in seven weeks. Pre-snap fouls have further augmented that. Some believe officials are calling fouls too “ticky-tacky,” he said; others have voiced concerns officials are missing too many violations.
The league office asked clubs to consider their top goals in officiating as the group considers how best to strike the balance.
“What’s the tolerance level for each foul?” Vincent asked. “Because there’s a foul on every play. And if you don’t call it, it’s going to show up in what we call ‘misery Mondays.’
“We spent a pretty good amount of time on just: What does the future look like from a penalty standpoint?”
